CBS Joins the Attack On Social Security

[Hannah Bell]

CBS News apparently now considers objectivity old-fashioned as it told viewers:
"As more boomers pack it in, the number of Americans collecting Social Security retirement benefits is projected to nearly double over the next 25 years to more than 76 million. The system won't be able to handle the strain without an overhaul."

Well, no that is not true. The projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that the system can pay all benefits through the year 2039 with no changes whatsoever. The Social Security trustees are somewhat more pessimistic showing that full benefits can be paid through the year 2037 with no changes at all. By 2039 the oldest baby boomers will be age 93 and the youngest will be 74. By 2037, the oldest boomers will be 91 and the youngest 73.

This means that by both the CBO and the trustees projections, most of the retirement of the baby boomers can be supported with no change whatsoever. Furthermore, even after this date, the program would still be able to pay close to 80 percent of scheduled benefits, assuming no changes are ever made. This makes the use of the term "overhaul" somewhat dubious. If a change of the sort put in place by the Greenspan commission back in 1983 was implemented in 2030, it would make the program fully solvent through the rest of the century.

The country did not begin to prepare for the 1983 changes in 1963. There is no obvious reason that the country need to act now to change Social Security, even if CBS News apparently wants us to.

It is unfortunate that CBS chose to advocate its position on Social Security rather than inform the public. Since many people are under the impression that they will receive no Social Security benefit, it would have been helpful if CBS had pointed out this is not possible unless Congress votes to end the program.

It would have also been helpful if CBS noted that every official projection shows that workers will on average be far richer in 30 or 40 years than they are today. Groups like the Peter G. Peterson Foundation have spent vast sums of money trying to convince the public that workers on average are getting poorer through time. While many workers have gotten poorer, this is the result of the upward redistribution within generations to rich people like Peter G. Peterson (a successful investment banker). It is certainly possible that the continued upward redistribution of income will leave most workers poorer in the future than they are today, but this will be a question of intra-generational inequality, not inter-generational inequality.



http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/cbs-joins-the-attack-on-social-security#comments

[spanone]

1. the media rarely dabbles in the truth. it used to be their business.

[Supersedeas]

6. the media has a corporate agenda -- if things get cut, it won't be to the detriment of

Corporations and Defense Contractors.

[leftstreet]

2. The Predator Class has been dreaming of this since the 30s

Sadly there are no movements from the Left to keep these fuckers in check, so they're making their moves globally.

Bolivarian Revolution. We needz it

[demosincebirth]

3. All this BS about SS...why don't they just take the cap off the SS payroll tax. That

will solve it for many years to come.

[auntsue]

8. Amen to that !!!!

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Hannah Belle

[fascisthunter]

5. This is what happens when you deregulate

and allow private companies and private interests the means to spread their propaganda and it is against this government and it is an attack against its people. This is war...

[Mimosa]

7. We need the Fairness Doctrine again. n/t

[whathehell]

19. YES!...Say it again...We need the Fairness Doctrine

or something a lot like it..Otherwise, we'll be completely creamed by Non-stop RW Propaganda.

[earth mom]

9. I don't watch the news at all anymore. It is so loaded with propaganda it ain't funny.

I think every DUer should take a month or so break from the "news" and then go back and watch it and see what right wing biased propaganda the "news" really is.

I guarantee you won't be able to stomach it if you are a true leftie. :puke:

[maryf]

10. K&R

sigh...

[sarcasmo]

11. MSM is just terrible, either bought and paid for by a Corporation or Politician.

[indy legend]

22. But I thought the MSM had a liberal bias. That's what all the righty fucktards keep crying

[Raine]

12. They ALL have their "marching orders"

are falling into line. x(

[ellie]

13. The media has been saying

this forever. I remember watching a report in the '80s about how Social Security will need an overhaul. I remember because my then boyfriend and I got into an argument about it. It was quite an argument.

[mistertrickster]

14. NPR was pitching this BS line the other day too. Some bureaucrat wrote a book.

My theory is that the Fat Cats that run the country want the only big pot of money they haven't gotten yet--the Social Security Trust fund.

First, the masses must be CONned into believing that Soc. Security is "unsustainable" so it can be raided.

[Enthusiast]

17. NPR and the entire rest of the media. nt

[L0oniX]

15. CBS promotes elder abuse on a grand scale.

[Enthusiast]

16. K&R. Every word I've heard

on CBS could have been right from the mouths of Simpson and Bowles. The rest of the media has also limited the discussion to one side. It's as if there is no one with a different opinion. This is really a massive undertaking to distort the issue so thoroughly on all fronts. This media has been completely co-opted.

[whathehell]

18. This morning I heard some bozo say that Republicans "have a majority in Congress".

Either he hasn't heard that Congress is composed of Two Houses or he's just Republi-speaking for the dummies who don't know any better.

[hayu_lol]

20. Thats what happens when you have 'corporate personhood'...

employers also contribute to employees social security payments. If they could eliminate that contribution, they could raise CEO and executive bonuses to unheard of levels--levels that now approach the entire budgets of small and impoverished countries.

No problem with the boomers...they will starve before getting into their 90s. As jobless boomers are finding out, they are already obsolete.

Would be nice to put the congress on SS for their retirement. Take away the royal retirement plan they presently enjoy. Reduce congressional salaries to a max of $100,000 a year and let them pay their own damn postage for political mailouts.

[whathehell]

21. This boomer won't starve or allow that generation to do so..

We paid, not only for our parents retirement, but for our OWN...No way these bastards will steal it from us.